First things first, there really is never a good time to secure the online data of your business. Any business with a cybersecurity-first mindset should have done it long, long ago. But in case, a business needs a strong reason, they have one: the worldwide, high-profile Facebook-Cambridge Analytica breach.

Few would have thought that a behemoth like Facebook would be brought to its knees but the scandal ensured that that was what exactly happened. According to investigations made by the American and the British media, Cambrige Analytica stole personal information from 50 million Facebook user profiles. This was done by getting users to submit answers to a personality prediction application designed by a psychologist named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan from the University of Cambridge. This application needed users to login using their Facebook account and gained access to their profiles, locations, likes and other personal data. It also gathered data of the friends of the users who downloaded the application.

This data was then sent to Cambridge Analytica – which is a violation of Facebook’s terms of service – which created psychographic profiles on 30 million of these profiles, to influence voter behavior for its clients. This created a massive storm leading to a staggering $60-billion drop in Facebook’s market value and a huge public relations disaster for Mark Zuckerberg’s company.

While the Californian company tries to recover from this disaster, this has also brought into attention the importance of securing their online presence and importantly, how to keep their online data secure. Some of the steps to consider are:

1. Password management

It is easy to underestimate how much of a role passwords play in our daily lives. And yet considering the facts, passwords ultimately determine the security of business’ online data. In any business, big or small, employees, ranging from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands, use a wide range of passwords to store, share and create data. And hence when malicious criminals or hackers need to attack, they target passwords. Employees can often use easy passwords or make the mistake of not keeping it secure, leading to the possibility of massive breaches.

Businesses need to perfect the art of password management. This includes, but is not limited to, making employees aware about the importance of strong password, carrying out repeated training programs, setting password policies and running regular audits.

2. Network protection

Network protection can often prove the difference for a business, when it comes to cybersecurity. Since the majority of malware occurs through the network, plugging that goes a long way in securing data online. For starters, companies must employ the basics – a strong firewall, anti-malware and anti-ransomware software, device protection to ensure that any malicious software which creeps in inadvertently is immediately neutralized.

3. Encryption

A key way to prevent data from leaking into the wrong hands, particularly in an online setting, is by using encryption to scramble data. Simply put, by encrypting your enterprise data, you make it much harder for cyber criminals and make your own organization a much harder target. Even if cyber criminals manage to access the data, the encryption ensures that the data is unusable and useless for hackers. Hence, it is an excellent data protection tool to prevent accidental data losses, secure confidential information and safeguard proprietary information.

4. Access rules

It is important to set rules accordingly for employees on the kind of content they can access online to help in securing data. Rules can be set as per the category of information data a particular user handles. Certain websites (like social media websites) can be blacklisted for users who handle extremely classified information, with the rules being much more stringent. It is important to set up and maintain these access rules.

Seqrite, a leader in cybersecurity, provides a secure platform for businesses to keep their data safe online. A multi-layered solution offers a range of powerful tools to allow enterprises to unallow malware, untolerate vulnerabilities and unauthorize alien access, leading to an unrisk enterprise.